Kiln - corn-drying

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the crest of a NE-facing slope. Archaeological testing (04E0916) by S. Delaney (2005) at Testing Area 11 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified (excavations.ie 2004:1271) archaeological material that was fully excavated (E003145) in November and December 2006 by D. Bayley (2010) as Gardenrath 2 when just over 3200 square metres were opened and five phases of limited activity extending from the early Neolithic to the high medieval were recorded (excavations.ie 2007:1316). The features included a Neolithic structure, an early medieval kiln and a high medieval path or roadway.

A circular pit (diam. 2.4-2.55m; D 0.73m) with an irregular N edge is interpreted as a corn-drying kiln of the key-hole type with the bowl at NW. It had nine fills and the basal fill of red silty sand is an oxidised layer, the result of in situ burning. A small quantity of carbonised barley grains was recovered from the fill above this, and a grain from this yielded a C14 date of 425-552 cal. AD (UBA 12045). The remaining fills indicate several uses of the kiln, but it may have been partly dug out before it was finally closed. No other features are contemporary with the kiln. (Bayley 2010, 18-19)

See the attached site plan adapted from Bayley (2010, fig. 5)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 11 March 2022

References

Delaney, S. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 4, Navan - Kells and Kells Bypass. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 11 in Gardenrath, Grangegoddan Glebe and Kilmainham, County Meath. Licence: 04E0916. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

Bayley, D. 2010 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 4, Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Final Report on Gardenrath 2, Co. Meath. Licence: E003145. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy